SIMON WATKINS: It's time to shed light on costly energy deals and whether profits are excessive

Energy groups are in the firing line once more over customers’ bills and, as we report this week, British Gas is likely to face brickbats when it announces a leap in earnings from ordinary householders. All of this in the face of falling prices for gas in the wholesale markets.

Its parent company Centrica will undoubtedly argue that it faces burdens elsewhere because it also drills for gas and oil and has suffered from those falling prices.

There are also the tangled issues of future investment which it will argue, not without good cause, is essential to future supply. And there are the green levies imposed on carbon energy by Government.

Controversy: Energy groups are in the firing line once more over customers’ bills and, as we report this week, British Gas is likely to face brickbats when it announces a leap in earnings from ordinary householders

By the end of next week it will doubtless still be impossible to see clearly whether energy group profits are excessive and whether competition is really working properly.

Which is why we urgently need the results of the Competition and Markets Authority’s report on the energy industry.

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That report – commissioned in 2014 – should finally be delivered in the second week of March. Its aim is to give some clarity on the crucial question of whether British energy customers are getting a fair deal and, more importantly, if not then what can be done about it.

We should get an earlier result however on another vexed question – will HSBC decide to leave the UK? The global bank has been mulling this issue for months after making ominous noises about Britain’s punitive tax rates on banks. The board meets today to make a decision. Frankly, it is time for the bank to put up or shut up on this issue, at least for a few years.

The betting is now that HSBC will stay in the UK, but the board is said to be divided and one factor identified by HSBC – whether or not the UK stays in the EU – will not be decided at all for some months. So I would not rule out the possibility of some further fudge.

Decisions: The betting is now that HSBC will stay in the UK, but the board is said to be divided and one factor identified by HSBC – whether or not the UK stays in the EU – will not be decided at all for some months

HSBC has had some reasonable gripes. The bank levy introduced by the Government was initially a tax on a bank’s entire balance sheet.

For HSBC this meant paying a UK levy on its lending around the world, which on the face of it did seem a bit harsh. The levy has since been adjusted and HSBC saved from the worst.

But even conceding that HSBC had a point, its drawn-out debate smacks of blackmail towards Britain. Holding the threat of leaving the UK over politicians and the public is unacceptable.

The views of business on public policies should be heard, but there is a fine line between making your voice heard and throwing your weight around.

The latter does not help heal the wounds between business (and banking in particular) and the public that still linger after the financial crisis.